Aermacchi

­The contract was signed in the presence of the Minister of Defence, Y. Bhg. Dato’ Sri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, of the Malaysian Defence General Secretary, Dato’ Haji Amhamad Latffi Hashim and the Chief Executive Officer of Alenia Aermacchi, Carmelo Cosentino.

The total value of the contract is approximately € 88-milion and includes 8 MB-339 aircraft, the supply of spare parts, ground equipment and related services for a period of two years. In addition, the contract includes agreements for direct and indirect Offsets relevant to aircraft maintenance and to the manufacture of civil aircraft parts with the Malaysian Industry.

The MB-339 CM will be manufactured by Alenia Aermacchi and will be used by the Royal Malaysian Air Force in Kuantan as Lead in Fighter, to train Malaysian pilots to fly on front line aircraft such as the new Sukhoi Su30 MKM recently acquired by the Government.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force has been operating the MB-339A for over 20 years and their choice to select the MB-339 CM confirms their confidence placed in Alenia Aermacchi’s ability to once again supply a trainer aircraft with state of the art quality standards and efficiency levels.

The order for the new aircraft also confirms the outstanding characteristics of the MB-339 which, in the new CM version, is able to grant to the Royal Malaysian Air Force a more advanced and efficient use in line with the more sophisticated training requirements.

The result reached rewards Alenia Aermacchi which, in the frame of worldwide training aircraft manufacturers, reaffirms its own presence on the international market with its state of the art products.

The Defence General Secretary of Malaysia declared: “The contract signed with Alenia Aermacchi permits our Military Air Force to proceed with the advanced training on the MB-339 training, also in the most advanced version manufactured today, the CM version.
This allows a partial exploitation of the training so far performed using the current platform, adding only the necessary updating of the CM version.
This will mean a significant saving on terms and costs and a top level efficiency granted”.

Carmelo Cosentino, Alenia Aermacchi Chief Executive Officer said:
“I am definitely satisfied with the signature of the contract which, after long negotiations, testifies the wonderful understanding between Alenia Aermacchi and one of best customers of ours, the Malaysian Ministry of Defence. This is a very important contract which awards the firm strategy of our shareholder Finmeccanica, aiming to strengthen the presence of the Company in the international market with the different successful aircraft of its production range”.